Set against the glamor and secrecy of Long Island during the Jazz Age, Fitzgerald’s classic explores the dazzling yet hollow lifestyles of the wealthy. The fortune of the mysterious Jay Gatsby is built on bootlegging, allowing him to host extravagant parties flowing with illegal liquor.
Through Gatsby’s desperate pursuit of Daisy Buchanan, the novel exposes the corruption and moral decay hiding beneath the glittering surface of the American dream, all fueled by the lawlessness of the era.
In this captivating crime novel, Joe Coughlin, the son of a Boston police captain, rejects his straight-laced upbringing and thrives in the criminal underworld spawned by Prohibition.
Lehane masterfully charts Joe’s ascent from a small-time thief to a powerful rum runner, building a formidable empire that stretches from Boston to the speakeasies of Tampa, Florida. Richly atmospheric, Live by Night is a sweeping story of ambition, violence, and betrayal in a time when crime paid handsomely.
Based on the true story of the author’s grandfather and granduncles, this novel chronicles the Bondurant brothers' legendary moonshining operation in Franklin County, Virginia. The brothers wage a brutal war with rival gangs and corrupt officials who want a piece of their highly profitable bootlegging business.
Bondurant delivers a gritty, visceral tale of family loyalty and survival, vividly evoking the lawless spirit and violent reality of rural America during Prohibition. The novel was later adapted into the film Lawless.
Toni Morrison’s powerful novel immerses the reader in 1920s Harlem, a vibrant and volatile landscape of African American life during Prohibition. The story of love, jealousy, and murder is propelled by the rhythms of the city and the era.
Morrison uses the backdrop of jazz clubs, rent parties, and speakeasies not just as scenery, but as a crucial element that shapes the characters’ passions, freedoms, and sorrows, offering an intimate portrait of a community navigating the opportunities and dangers of the Roaring Twenties.
The first book in William Kennedy’s acclaimed Albany Cycle, Legs fictionalizes the life of notorious real-life gangster and bootlegger Jack "Legs" Diamond. The novel chronicles his bloody rise and spectacular fall during the 1920s, portraying a man who became a twisted folk hero and a dark celebrity of the Prohibition era.
Through the eyes of Diamond’s lawyer, Kennedy explores the public’s fascination with a charismatic outlaw who masterfully exploited a time of widespread corruption and hypocrisy.
Set in Boston in the tumultuous years of 1918-1919, this novel serves as a direct prelude to the Prohibition era and introduces the Coughlin family, central to Live by Night. It covers the Boston Police Strike, labor unrest, and anarchist plots that created a power vacuum soon filled by organized crime.
Lehane masterfully shows how the social and political decay of the period paved the way for the crime wave that would define the Roaring Twenties, making this an essential story about the birth of the gangster era.
Libba Bray blends historical fiction with supernatural mystery in this thrilling novel set in 1926 New York City. When Evie O'Neill is sent to live with her uncle, she is thrown into a world of flappers, jazz clubs, and clandestine speakeasies.
While a series of occult-based murders plague the city, the story remains steeped in the culture of Prohibition, where the vibrant, anything-goes atmosphere of illegal gin and secret parties provides the perfect cover for dark deeds.